And another bill’s gone and another bill’s gone, another bill bites the dust

Hey! We’ll kill the next one too! Another bill bites the dust!

Ooooohhhhhhh yeah!

DJ reports that yet another backdoor anti-abortion bill from the infamous Pro-Life Caucus is no longer pining for the fjords but has passed on, is no more, has ceased to be, expired and shuffled off its mortal coil. It is an EX-bill. The doomed Bill C-510 was voted down today by 178-97, the NO vote being a healthy majority that included — shriek — Stephen Harper.

C-510 is just the latest entry in the never-ending competition among anti-choice MPs to see who can actually get an anti-abortion measure passed. This redundant and patently phony “anti-coerced abortion” bill is clearly useless — it doesn’t stop violence against women and even the bill’s sponsor, MP Rod Bruinooge, openly admits that it would be virtually unenforceable. Clearly the legislation serves no purpose other than to chip away at abortion rights by putting abortion providers at legal risk.

However, the new prohibitions that Bill C-510 attempts to create are not helpful in addressing the question of violence against women.

A young pregnant woman has the right to choose whether to carry a pregnancy to term or to terminate it. Whichever option she chooses, she should not be subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats or the removal of financial support. The Criminal Code already prohibits all of these activities. Thus there is no need for Bill C-510. In any event, this bill only addresses the “coercion” of abortion.

Furthermore, by only creating prohibitions around abortion, the Bill effectively implies that this is not a valid or legitimate choice.

In addition, Bill C-510 is so broad in its language, that it might have the potential to criminalize the activities of Planned Parenthood and other social and healthcare workers, who provide important information and medical treatment – including abortion – to those who choose it.

In light of the above, CCLA calls for the withdrawal and the defeat of Bill C-510.

Anti-choicers have long since come to grips with the reality that upfront anti-abortion legislation isn’t in the cards under any government in Canada and that only an incremental approach stands a chance. But so far success has eluded even the cheap, sleazy “death by a thousand cuts” strategy, and there’s no reason to think the winds of such change are anything but the anti-abortion movement’s own mental flatulence. Not that the sneaky fuckers will ever stop trying.